Well, this isn’t a headline I get to write every day. Instead of using impoverished young children to jockey camel races, Dubai has been using impoverished young children-shaped robots with remote controlled whips. One thing the robots have going over the kids, though, is that they can be equipped with hidden stun guns to shock the camels into running faster, as if having a robot with a whip on your back wasn’t incentive enough:

Dubai police have confirmed they uncovered a gang of dealers who were selling electric stun gun kits, for up to £5,000, across the region.

These were then being fitted inside the robot jockeys, which cost between £130-£200, that in recent years have largely replaced child jockeys, traditionally used in camel racing, due to humanitarian concerns.

The electric shocks could be administered by remote control to encourage the camel to run faster.

Now, I know what you really want to see is a camel race with these robot jockeys in the saddle. I found a good one on YouTube; it’s a 6 kilometer track that the camels must make one single circuit of, and they can run at 50 kph. It’s ludicrous, and if you stick it out until the end there’s some closeups of the bots:

Man, what a crazy future we live in.

[ Telegraph ] VIA [ Gearfuse ]